I just want my poetry :-D Cassie

The basis of this section is that poetry influences people to act emotionally and when they are emotional then they aren’t making decisions rationally. It takes the idea that poetry is something we can use to willfully believe like Wallace Stevens’ Supreme Fiction. And it certainly can’t be used to work through current ideas. And it certainly can’t be left to inspire emotion and thought. Poetry is meant to be enjoyed and of course it stirs emotion, but Plato argues that truth cannot be attained through emotion but only through rational processes. So this of course goes to the argument about what truth is and how we can attain it. My problem is why would we separate our emotions and our reasons? Aren’t emotions just more ways we seek meanings in our everyday lives? Are meanings truth? I understand for some people when it is extremely necessary, I think of many teens and- well many adults who need to learn how to separate their feelings with their decision making - but I would not ban poetry for those reasons. Even with poetry that inspires feelings that are negative, I think we can read it, feel the emotion, and then rationally talk or at the least think about it. This is a conversation that comes up with censorship in schools. Where as a manual on how to commit suicides should not be available to teens since it doesn’t just inspire suicidal thoughts, a poem about suicidal feelings or a suicide is okay to be used in a classroom- as long as reason accompanies the reading and people talk about the very human feelings expressed in the poem. Sometimes I just like to feel those emotions, but I really don’t think that hinders my ability to make decisions, but rather people started focusing on keeping their brains sharp done using brain teasers and such, reading poetry was also listed in those little magazine adds.

I can’t help but also add that the people I most admire in life for their grasp on life are the people who have a love of literature and who explore those human emotions on their way to pursuits of truth. The people who argue just on a rational basis annoy me- and those who argue on just an emotional basis irritate me as well.